


Ritual

by orphan_account



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Minor Spoilers, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-25 18:29:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19751353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: who doesn't love a good resurrection ritual?? fun times right? Jester, is dead y'all. i'm so sorry.





	Ritual

They had been beaten. The Mighty Nein had fallen when it had mattered the most and now they were sat, beaten and bloodied, in the middle of a battlefield that had been abandoned save for the bodies of nameless allies that had come to their aid. 

“What—what did we just do?” Caleb mindlessly muttered. 

Nobody had an answer.

In the center of the circle, Jester Lavorre, their cleric, the very best of them, laid motionless, dead. 

“We gotta get her back. We gotta bring her back,” Fjord said, his voice urgent, nearly breaking.

Nott was holding Jester’s hand, tears silently rolling down her face.

“Back to where, Fjord? Where could we go where we wouldn’t be turned away?” Caleb asked. “We just fucked the entire goddamn material plane. Any self-respecting holy place would close their doors to us and you know what? They would be right to.”

Fjord just clenched his jaw. He hated when Caleb was right.

“We need to go home,” Caduceus croaked. 

It was always odd, seeing the firbolg man like this, visibly shaken. 

“I don’t think we have one, Cad,” Beau lamented.

That sentence, that idea of having no place to call home, it hung in the air as if it were tangible enough that any one of them could just stand up and grab it.

“So how do we save her?” Yasha asked quietly. 

“We have to bring her back to her mother,” Caleb proposed. “We need to let her know what’s happened.”

“We’re not even gonna try to bring her back first?” Fjord asked. “That’s it?” 

“We can’t stay here,” Beau said.

Everyone looked to Caleb, the only one with the ability to take them away. He shook his head.

“I’m tapped. I can make the Hut, but I cannot get us out of here now. I need to rest,” he said.

Nobody complained and Caleb began the spell, creating Leomund’s Tiny Hut, perhaps their only home, no matter how magical and temporary it was.

Nott and Fjord offered to take first watch. Though nobody was keen on sleeping, the exhaustion took them quickly.

“Do you think… do you think we _can_ save her?” Nott asked, her hand still in Jester’s.

Fjord sighed. “We’ve done some crazy shit, Nott. I don’t know.”

When Nott was silent, Fjord spoke again. “I hope that we can, that we can save her.”

Nott nodded. 

The rest of their watch was quiet and they ceded to Yasha and Caduceus.

After a few quiet moments, Yasha spoke.

“You’re a cleric, right? You understand death and stuff?”

Caduceus shrugged. “I know what I know. There’s a chance we can bring her back. There’s a chance we can’t. Life and death will do as they please and we will deal with it however we can.”

“I can’t help but feel like this is my fault, Caduceus. You both spent your spells to keep me standing.”

Caduceus shook his head adamantly. “No. No one is to blame here. Absolutely no one. We knew the risks coming into this. We knew the consequences. Jester just happened to be the one that fell because of them. It could have been any one of us.”

Yasha took a long breath in as she tried to accept his words.

They sat for a while, the only things disturbing their watch being some scavenger animals that had come for the bodies around them. Caduceus did his best to ward them off, but they kept coming. Eventually, the two went back to sleep, passing the watch off to Beau and Caleb. 

The two humans, still a little weak and tired, sat back to back for their watch.

“The others,” Caleb began, “except for Nott, they weren’t there… when Mollymauk died.”

“Does that make us the experts on losing a friend?” Beau asked. She was half joking.

Caleb sighed. “I don’t know, Beauregard. I don’t think anyone can be an expert at losing a friend.”

“How did we let this happen twice? Twice Caleb!”

Beau’s voice broke at the end and Caleb turned around, grabbing Beau’s face so she was looking at him.

“Look at me, Beauregard, I don’t know. I don’t know how it happened twice but the two of us, we’re still here and _they_ need us!” He whispered frantically.

Beau looked at the others, at Nott, curled beside the stiff body of Jester, at Yasha curled tightly in her own space, her body tense even as she slept. She looked at Fjord who had fallen asleep facing the direction of Jester, as though she had been the last thing he had seen before he’d fallen asleep. She looked at Caduceus, seemingly relaxed except the faintest of creases in his brow and a slight twitch in his ears. 

“We couldn’t protect Jester,” Beau whispered back, angry tears fighting their way down her cheeks.

Caleb wiped away Beau’s tears. “We are going to get the fuck out of this place and we are going to bring her back. Do you hear me, Beauregard?”

When Beau didn’t answer, he shook her softly. “Do you hear me, Beauregard?” He repeated.

She nodded. She was too tired to argue. 

Caleb brought her closer and placed a kiss on her forehead. 

“Schlafen,” he whispered. _Sleep_. “I can finish the rest of this watch.”

Again, Beau wanted to argue but she could tell he had his mind set already. He turned around patted his back. Beau leaned against it, finding sleep quickly.

In the morning, the usual quiet conversation was absent. Instead, the Mighty Nein’s camp was tense and silent as they quickly ate their breakfast. When everyone was ready, Caleb began the process of drawing a transportation circle. When the circle lit up, they dashed forward, Yasha carrying Jester’s body.

* * *

They arrived at the tower of Yussa Errenis, a place they hadn’t been since the early days of their time together. Soon after Caleb stepped through, the last to enter, a dapper goblin came to greet them.

They were shepherded into the sitting area, a place oddly familiar despite how long it had been since they’d last been there. They expected to have to wait a while for an audience but Yussa entered the sitting area with a tray of tea. He and Wentsworth passed the teacups around before he spoke.

“I’ve already heard of your… misadventures,” he said. “I imagine there is a side of the story you’d like me to hear.”

“Maybe for another time,” Beau said. “Right now, we just have a friend we’d like to save.”

Yussa peered over towards Yasha who had laid Jester gently at her feet. 

“Ah. And you expect me to do this freely, even after allowing you refuge?”

“Not at all,” Caduceus answered. “We are willing to negotiate terms. We’d just really like our friend back.”

Yussa hummed, assessing his options. “Clear the space, quickly now.”

Everyone contributed, pushing the table and sofa towards the edges of the room. Yasha placed Jester where Yussa directed. He drew a few symbols and had Wentsworth fetch some candles. The Mighty Nein watched him work, seemingly holding a collective breath.

“Now,” he said, clapping his hands. “There must be three offerings. Who would like to contribute?”

Every hand was raised.

Caleb’s went down first. “The rest of you would probably be better choices,” he said solemnly. 

Yasha’s hand went down too, and then Caduceus’.

Nott, Fjord, and Beau remained.

“Alright,” Yussa said. “Who would like to begin?”

Fjord stepped forward. “I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to do.”

“Make a contribution,” Yussa instructed. “It can be an object, something that reminds you of your fallen friend; it can be words that may draw her soul back to her body. Whatever you choose, make it count.”

Subconsciously, Fjord ground his teeth. He didn’t want to fuck this up. He thought of Jester, of the time the two of them had spent with the Mighty Nein, and the time they had spent before they had met their ragtag group of friends. He sifted through his belongings—for something of meaning—because, despite his charismatic persona, he wanted his appeal to be sincere. He ended up pulling out a slightly crumpled piece of parchment, placing it where Yussa pointed.

“Uhh, Jester,” Fjord began. “This is my letter, you know, the one I was going to use to get into the Soltryce Academy. I know that dream or whatever is no longer on the to-do list anymore, but that goal, of getting into the Academy, that’s what put us on the same path. I know we’ve kinda fucked things up a little in the land of the living but I’m not done traveling with you… so come back. We’ve still got a long road ahead of us, you and I.”

Yussa nodded at him and everyone watched as the letter began to faintly glow. 

“Who’s next?” Yussa asked.

Nott peered over to Beau who sat motionlessly. Her nerves began to jump as she stepped forward. She thought of Jester, her friend, who had been protective of her when she’d reunited with Yeza, who had been her partner in crime when it came to sussing out secrets. She suddenly felt an intense desire to ask Caleb to step in for her but as everyone looked at her, expecting her to make a contribution, she took another step forward and tossed Neverending Flask on the ground beside her lifeless friend.

“I spent a lot of money on this, Jester,” Nott started. “A long time ago, you stole it right from under my nose. You told me I was being reckless, that I was endangering the group, and I told you I would consider stopping. I lied when I said that. I lied at the moment... but then I actually considered it. I tried to get sober, you know, several times, in fact. It sucked and I hated it, but I’m fucking sober now and you aren’t even here to witness it. If you don’t come back—” her voice broke. “If you don’t come back, I don’t know if I can maintain my sobriety.”

She stepped back and again, the group watched as the flask began to glow faintly.

Yussa motioned for Beau to step forward. 

For the first time in a very long time, Beau was completely still. Even her breathing was slowed. She couldn’t process what was happening. It took Caleb giving her a gentle push for her to force her legs to move forward. 

Now that she stood over Jester’s body, the tiefling woman’s complexion dull and lifeless and _so_ unlike Jester, a million little moments she and Jester had shared together flooded her mind. Quiet moments they had shared together as roommates, and much, much louder moments they’d shared in front of others. Beau felt so much guilt for letting Jester fall after all that they’d shared and the fact that Jester had never let Beau meet the same fate. She shouldn’t be the one doing this, Beau thought. Caleb would be better, Caduceus would be better, hell, even Yasha, the woman of few words would be better than Beau at the moment. 

Yussa cleared his throat pulling Beau out of her head. 

She looked through her possessions as Fjord had done, hoping for something that would implore her friend from the grips of death. She pulled out a worn book with a familiar cover on it and opened it a dog eared page before placing it in Jester’s hands. She could feel Yussa’s judgement but she didn’t care. 

Beau then began reading the smuttiest, sexiest excerpt in the entirety of the _Courting of the Crick_ , making sure to emphasize the more explicit words and to use the term “Krynn” instead of “Crick” knowing that’s what Jester would have wanted. When she was finished, she closed the book.

  
“I read that one for you, Jes, wherever your soul may be,” Beau whispered fondly. “You made us laugh and smile and fall over in pain from laughter and I hope you’re doing the same as you make your way back.”

When she looked up, everyone was staring back, almost all of them with their jaws slightly dropped. Beau hoped she hadn’t majorly fucked up.

The book began to glow faintly and Yussa moved back towards Jester so that he stood over her. He muttered some incantations and waved his hands, commanding the magic to do his bidding. 

Beau, who had somehow managed to find her way back to Caleb’s side, felt his hand on her shoulder in the way he always did when he looked through Frumpkin’s eyes. This time though, his eyes her clear, and the gesture was one of solidarity, of protectiveness.

The minutes it took Yussa to complete the ritual seemed more like hours but when he was done, a small, faint breath finally escaped Jester’s lips. 

“She will need rest, lots of it,” Yussa said. “Not here though,” he clarified. 

Caduceus walked up and placed his hands on Jester’s forehead. They glowed a familiar light—he was giving her healing. Jester, their Jester, had returned. Now, all they could do was wait.

**Author's Note:**

> again, i'm sorry.


End file.
